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ESAblawg is an educational effort by Keith W. Rizzardi. Correspondence with this site does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Photos or links may be copyrighted (but used with permission, or as fair use). ESA blawg is published with a Creative Commons License.

florida gators... never threatened!

If you ain't a Gator, you should be! Alligators (and endangered crocs) are important indicator species atop their food chains, with sensitivity to pollution and pesticides akin to humans. See ESA blawg. Gator blood could be our pharmaceutical future, too. See ESA musing.

Follow the truth.

"This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
-- Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, December 27, 1820.

Thanks, Kevin.

KEVIN S. PETTITT helped found this blawg. A D.C.-based IT consultant specializing in Lotus Notes & Domino, he also maintains Lotus Guru blog.

Why you should love Gators too...

ESA Blawg readers already know how I
feel about Florida Gators. Your health now demands that you love
them too.

Once a threatened species in the 1950s
and 60s due to overharvesting, and eventually regulated under the Endangered
Species Act, American alligator populations have long since recovered throughout
the Southeastern United States. See FWS fact sheet
and Florida
Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. Recent scientific
information from LSU suggests that the reptile's preservation may
have been an especially important accomplishment for humans, because Gator
blood is particularly adept at combating infection. (University of Florida
scientists conducted similar studies in 1999 and 2002.) An evolutionary
trait created over eons to deal with the harsh realities of a violent predatory
lifestyle, the Gator immune system can combat infections it never previously
experienced, and the chemicals in it may soon be used in new pharmaceutical
products to combat the superbugs that are increasingly resistant
to traditional antibiotics. Read more from the Palm Beach Post
and NIH's MedLine.

Photo of American alligator by FWS,
available from American Chemical Society, who sponsored the talk by University
scientists on this subject in April 2008